Access Barriers Experienced By Adults In Distance Education Courses And Programs: A Review Of The Research Literature

Distance education in the American education system continues to expand. However, despite technological improvements and nearly universal accessibility to the Internet, adult learners continue to experience barriers to accessing distance education courses and programs. Building on prior work by Cross (1981) and Darkenwald and Merriam (1982), this literature review focuses on the institutional and student barriers experienced by adult learners. Institutional barriers consist of program costs, resource availability, lack of equipment and infrastructure, scheduling, instructional concerns and technical assistance. Student barriers include costs and motivators, feedback and teacher contact, alienation and isolation, student support and services, and a lack of experience and/or training. Recommendations for addressing institutional barriers include continual evaluation of noninstructional areas, faculty training, and adoption of new technologies. Recommendations for alleviating student barriers include providing opportunities for distance students to interact with faculty, other students, and other parts of the campus, providing toll-free phone support to all areas of the campus, requiring faculty to have online office hours, and developing electronic tutorials for new distance students. The use of distance education in the United States continues to grow. A recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics (Waits & Lewis, 2003) documented the increased use of distance education in a multitude of academic and technical disciplines in postsecondary institutions. Private industry and business, along with governmental agencies, have also recognized the attraction of learning “any time and any place” in providing education and training opportunities for their employees. Relieving adult learners of the time and place constraints of a traditional classroom, distance education can present a new set of constraints, or barriers, to accessing educational opportunities. These barriers can be significant for adult learners, many of whom are “non-traditional” students, i.e., older, employed, needing job skill updates, seeking career change, or returning to college after a long absence. These students may also be single parents or transfer students, who, because of family responsibilities, work commitments or geographic limitations, are seeking to access educational opportunities at their convenience. Distance education offers the promise of unfettered access for these individuals; however, at present, the promise remains unfulfilled

Organizational Performance of Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines

The study aimed to look into the organizational performance of Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines particularly in Zamboanga del Norte. The descriptive method of research was used. There were 95 respondents to the survey. Frequency count, percentage, and Mean were used as a statistical tool. The investigation revealed that organizational performance of the Higher Education Institutions involved was found to be very good along the areas of VMGO, faculty, curriculum and instruction, support to students, research, extension, library, physical plant and facilities, laboratories and administration. The Higher Education Institutions met the standards of quality over and above the minimum requirement of government under Article XIV Accreditation, Section 60. There were areas need to focus such as congruent to the needs of the people in the community, monitoring of faculty adequacy and loading, sourcing out funds and other resources, and maintaining safety and security inside the campuses, even though all areas in organizational performance found very good, Further, the administration continuously requires planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation

A LEADERSHIP MODEL FOR EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGIES IN THAI HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

This study aimed to develop a leadership model for effective internationalization (IZN) strategies in Thai higher education institutions (HEIs). The study was based on three objectives: 1) To explore the leadership factors for internationalization strategies in the global higher education institutions, 2) To validate a proposed leadership model for effective internationalization strategies in Thai higher education institutions, and 3) To verify a leadership model for effective internationalization strategies in Thai higher education institutions. The mixed methods used for this study included documentary review, semi-structured interviews, expert validation, and questionnaire.  A proposed leadership model for effective IZN strategies in Thai HEIs was validated by 21 experts; as well as it was verified by the statistical analysis of the results from the questionnaire survey on leadership factors and IZN strategies in two Thai private universities. The findings have shown that five leadership factors and 15 IZN strategies, which were validated by the experts in terms of suitability, could be apply to Thai HEIs. In addition, other three components, comprising institutional vision, context and policy and priority, are needed for successful implementation of IZN. Besides, the results from verifying the model reflect that all leadership factors have significantly influence on this leadership model. Since leadership in HEIs plays a very crucial role in enhancing effective IZN strategies to achieve their IZN goals.  It is recommended that HEIs could use this study as an idea for developing their leadership model for successful IZN strategies that fit to their vision, contexts, and priority

CHALLENGES IN INTRODUCING DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN ERITREA:Some Observations and Implications

All over the world, distance mode of education is gaining a momentum and becoming more popular than conventional education. It is a system in which schools, universities and other educational agencies offer instruction wholly or partly by mail. Eritrea is a newly independent country in Africa is been facing many challenges particularly in its education sector. It did not have more educational institutions at tertiary level. Thus the distance learning is the best option for this country. An attempt is made in this paper to discuss various problems related to the establishment and development of distance education. It also provides the distance education programmes so far undertaken in the country with concluding remarks.Distance Education, Eritrea, Ministry of Education, Asmara University